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Genome sequencing of soybean aphid complete

Soybean aphids have become well established throughout the northern Midwest United States and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, causing significant damage in some years.

Because of the potential for ongoing problems from this yield robber in the future, there have been significant funding efforts from research programs: One management strategy has been to develop soybean varieties that are resistant to soybean aphids.

“The checkoff in Ohio as well as the North Central region states have put in a lot of investment in developing soybean plants that are resistant to the aphids, but now we have aphids that have overcome that resistance,” said Andy Michel, field crops entomologist at Ohio State University.

To address this challenge, researchers took on the extensive process of sequencing the entire soybean aphid genome to help develop strategies that prevent the spread and increase of aphids capable of breaking aphid resistance. Michel led the effort.

“My laboratory at Ohio State focuses on understanding how soybean aphids are able to overcome aphid resistance in soybean. Through this research, we hope to develop strategies that prevent the spread and increase of aphids capable of breaking aphid resistance. In the course of generating DNA sequences…we were able to sequence the entire soybean aphid genome,” he said. “We now have a really good roadmap for the soybean aphid and understanding all of the genes that are involved that make the aphid such a bad pest for soybean farmers in the north central region.”

The soybean aphid is now the fourth aphid species with a completely described genome and this new information will be a valuable tool moving forward with soybean aphid management. | READ MORE

February 9, 2017  By Matt Reese and Dale Minyo